Hard disc drives are common information storage devices having of a series of rotatable disks that are accessed by magnetic reading and writing elements. These data transferring elements, commonly known as transducers or heads, are typically carried by and embedded in a slider body that is held in a close relative position over discrete data tracks formed on a disc to permit a read or write operation to be carried out. In order to properly position the transducer with respect to the disc surface, an air bearing surface (ABS) formed on the slider body experiences a fluid air flow that provides sufficient lift force to “fly” the slider and transducer above the rotating disc data tracks.
Some of the major objectives in disc drive designs are to fly the slider and its accompanying transducer as close as possible to the surface of the rotating disk. The flying height of the slider is viewed as one of the most critical parameters affecting the magnetic disc reading and recording capabilities of a mounted read/write element. A relatively small flying height allows the transducer to achieve greater resolution between different data bit locations on the disc surface, thus improving data density and storage capacity. With the increasing popularity of lightweight and compact notebook type computers that utilize relatively small yet powerful disc drives, the need for a progressively higher data density and storage capacity has continually grown. In addition, with the importance of providing accurate data storage and retrieval capability for these disc drives, it is desirable to precisely and repeatedly control processing parameters for the read/write heads during the manufacturing process.